Change Your Image
marshall-penn
Reviews
The Verdict (1982)
One of my all time top twenty films, definitely Newmans best
I can only agree wholeheartedly with the first submission about this film, it is one of the most grown up works of American cinema that i have ever seen. Everything about the film is just great - Newmans Frank Galvin is a truly great character, and it just shows how great an actor Newman is when he can portray someone washed up so well, when as a person he has lived a very fulfilling and successful life. As a character study it is superlative, and there are no wasted moments - just like Training Day there is not one wasted moment in the film. The way he is chastised by the sister and her husband for being 'Just like all the others' when in fact he isn't, he actually knows that it is an occasion to really address the issue properly, yet risks all by doing so - shows the kind of contradiction that rarely is shown in films. Cutting, biting wit. A film for grown ups. Fabulous.
Training Day (2001)
If you really liked the movie check out the DVD with the extras.
I was in love with this movie the first time i saw it and had video for ages. When i got the DVD i discovered that the extras go a long way in helping to understand the way the movie seems so real and where the director, and all those making the movie were coming from.
In an uncompromising way the film shows a world that is totally corrupt (in this case the LAPD). The reason that i love this film is because the world (or at least those in power for the past 500 years, respectively) IS totally corrupt. Nice nation leaders get beat back by all the bullies, all the time, and probably for all time!.
I love the US TV show 'Law & Order'. I love the older cop with his droopy face and his 'happy-go-lucky'/zen Buddhist attitude to things.
But training day, that's like the real world.
I Am Not an Animal (2004)
I thought it was brilliant
It was brilliant because it allowed the wackiness to be carried through without any flaws committed by poor writing.
Totally magic!
The pace of the writing was fresh, and given the potential that such a large canvas might cause the writers to fall down a hole, the characters lively interaction carried the basic premise (that is totally wacky) in an engaging way.
At the same time you might be feeling pity on the animals, laughing with them, laughing at them, and rooting for them all at the same time. Magic!